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08.12.09 Increasing The Usability Of Your Site For The End User  By Patrick Hare You don't have to be a website consultant to improve the user experience for your website. You just have to think like a new visitor. Every day we see sites that have been around for years, but continue to present information in a way that makes site navigation a mystery. If you are making money off a website with substantial roadblocks, imagine the how much you would make if you could double or triple your revenue with a website that is easy to use. One way to get conversion advice is to hire an experienced site consultant, but another way is to improve your website so it can be used easily by a first-time visitor. Here are a few usability tips that are used (or sometimes missed) by major online companies: • Cut the Clutter. The most important action that should be taken by a visitor should be prominent, and in the top middle section of the page above the fold. • Make it obvious. For every step in the signup or navigation process, the preferred route through the site should have the most prominent colors for text or graphics. If you have free shipping and accept specific forms of payment, every page of the site should say so. • Don't Interrogate, Converse Instead. Many sites (still!) require a complex signup before someone can make a purchase. Signing up takes time and adds complexity, and may cause people to abandon the shopping process. In many cases the signup process asks customers for more information than they are willing to give. While some companies may ask you to create an account before buying, an easy checkout process gives you an advantage, while allowing you to automatically create an account for the customer when the checkout confirmation is complete. • Test Your Website. Surprisingly, quite a few people own websites that they haven't tested. In many cases obvious failures, which would have brought in more sales if fixed, have been part of the site for years. Things tend to break over time, so you should go through your site periodically as if you were a customer, and immediately fix anything that doesn't work.
• Answer the Phone. Savvy ecommerce companies actually talk to website customers who call in, and monitor customer service calls. If there is a pattern of questions that could be answered online, the site should be improved. This single tactic can simultaneously reduce unnecessary phone calls, improve sales, and give you valuable intelligence about what your visitors want to see. • Spy on Your Visitors. Several software packages let you see real-time or recorded views of how your customers use your site. You can see small movies of visitor behavior and mouse movements. If too many people are lingering over unimportant parts of any given web page, or clicking on a link that is hard for the average user to find, then the site can be improved. • Never Stop Testing, Tweaking, and Trying. Continuous improvement is the key to success in the world of web design, online commerce, and usability. Standards for website usability are continuously getting defined by the collective user experience of several million web surfers. We have sites that got great results in the past but are now considered antiquated and untrustworthy, based solely on appearance or ease of use. You don't have to be any kind of an expert to improve your website usability. In some cases you just have to build the type of site that you would like to visit, and one that answers the questions that you might ask when you are looking for a product or service. Learning about usability standards for websites can be done on your own time, and through several dozen online sources, but the real key to getting your message out involves reducing the factors that would cause a customer to become confused or suspicious. Improving web site usability is a great way of growing your online business without spending extra money on marketing or advertising. Better yet, a higher customer conversion rate allows you to channel your online marketing dollars into the places where they are most likely to increase profitability, giving your site a flexibility that lets it thrive under all kinds of economic conditions. Comments About the Author: Patrick Hare has been managing online and offline marketing projects since 1999. From 2005 to present, he has been with Scottsdale Arizona's Web.com Search Agency (formerly Submitawebsite). Patrick provides Search Engine Optimization and Marketing advice to in-house customers and Web.com Jacksonville’s web design group. |
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